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Today's City section goes all Forgotten-NY on us today in an article on the city's more than 300 statues of notable figures. Specifically it talks about the statues of people who were once household names and are now... not. Roscoe Conkling, anyone? The article mostly focuses on the statues around Madison Square Park but it brings up a good point. New York City is littered with statues of people who the average New Yorker either has never heard of, or heard of only in passing. Our personal favorite semi-obscure statue of this type is the one of Lincoln-killer John Wilkes Booth's brother Edwin Booth ("the greatest American Hamlet of the 19th century.") that is the centerpiece of the only private park left in the city, Gramercy Park. What's your favorite?
Meanwhile over at the real Forgotten-NY Kevin has his own little statuary tour going in which he looks at gnomes and gargoyles on buildings around the city. The title? Gnoming Me, Gnoming You. (Uh huh).
Gramercy Park by The Flying Enchilada on flickr.
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Not a forgotten person, but almost a forgotten statue: I really love how Gandhi strolls quietly in the bushes in Union Square. You can only see him as you walk past, and I always feel a pleasant surprise when I see him.
While the subject is always welcome, I found Elrick's piece to be a fairly obvious appropriation of Sarah Vowell's excellent Assasination Vacation. I think Gothamist has probably read this one too (yes, Edwin Booth would probably be Ms. Vowell's choice). Not that there's anything wrong with revisiting, so to speak, this subject - but somehow treading so closely in Vowell's steps, matching her self-referential voice here and there, without acknowledging the very recent publication (what, 2 years ago) made the whole thing ring a tad tinny. I'm not saying this is a rip off (the Times editors know the book and know how many copies it sold), but it could have used something truly novel. Elrick asks, almost Vowellesquish, "Taking a spot on a nearby park bench, I thought for a moment about why I had used a beautiful summer afternoon to track down the statue of a largely inconsequential man who just happened to have inhabited the White House at a time when very little was expected of its occupant." Good stuff. But Elrick's answer is: because you read Assasination Vacation.
Good point gabe, I'd thought it was a bit close to Assasination Vacation too and I should have mentioned it. In fact, that similarity is why I suspect he didn't mention the Booth statue and framed the story around the guy in Tompkins square. Oh well, what are you going to do...
Uh, regarding the title, did you mean statuTes or statues?
My favorite memorial is the Carrere staircase that leads down into Riverside Park from Riverside drive at around 99th street. I never would have known who he was until I read the sign the Parks Department out there. They should do such extensive bios of everyone they out a statue up of. I'm sure more New Yorkers would love to learn who these people are.